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Nearly Half of Laid Off Workers Found New Job Within Three Months

April 10, 2009 — Nearly half of workers who were laid off from full-time jobs in the last three months reported that they found a new full-time, permanent position, according to a new survey.

The CareerBuilder survey of 807 workers who were laid off from full-time jobs within the last 12 months found that 41% of workers found full-time jobs and 8% found part-time work.

"This is encouraging news for the 3.3 million workers who have lost their jobs in recent months," said Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America. "It's going to take longer to find a job in today's market, but there are opportunities out there in key areas such as health care, government, education, sales and technology."

Comparing gender and age
According to the survey, more men than women who were laid off in the last 12 months were able to find full-time employment (59% of men, 49% of women). Comparing age brackets, workers between the ages of 35 and 44 were the most likely to find full-time jobs after a layoff (68%); workers between 18 and 24 were the least likely (41%); followed by workers age 55 and older (46%).

Severance and long-term savings 
The survey found that of those workers who were laid off in the last 12 months, only 32% received a severance package. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said their severance kept them sustained for two months or less; one-fourth said it sustained them for less than one month; 45% said they had to tap into long-term savings.

Impact on pay and hours
Forty-nine percent of workers who were laid off in the last 12 months and found a new position accepted a lower salary; 15% were able to negotiate higher compensation; 20% said they took a job with fewer hours; 12% said they took on more hours.

Relocating 
Thirteen percent of workers said they relocated to a new city or state for their new job. Of those who are still looking for employment, 39% said they would consider relocating for a job opportunity.

Transferring skills to other industries and fields
Thirty-eight percent of workers said they found work in a different field from where they were previously employed; 70% of those workers said they really enjoy the new opportunity. Of those workers who are still job hunting, 44% said they are looking for work outside their profession.

Survey methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder between Feb. 20 and March 11, 2009, among 807 U.S. workers ages 18 and over who had been laid off in the past 12 months from a full-time position (percentages for some questions are based on a subset of these U.S. workers, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 807, one could say with a 95% probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 3.4 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

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